Crystal Structures

Types of crystal structures

Face centered cubic (FCC)
Body centered cubic (BCC)
Hexagonal close packed (HCP)

Close Packed Structures

Different Packing of HCP and FCC

Crystallographic Directions and Planes

cubic systems

Face Centered Cubic (FCC)

Atoms are arranged at the corners
and center of each cube face of the
cell.
Atoms are assumed to touch along face
diagonals

Face Centered Cubic (FCC)

The lattice parameter, a, is related to the
radius of the atom in the cell through:

a 2R 2
Coordination number: the number of
nearest neighbors to any atom. For FCC
systems, the coordination number is 12.

Face Centered Cubic (FCC)

Atomic Packing Factor: the ratio of
atomic sphere volume to unit cell
volume, assuming a hard sphere
model.
FCC systems have an APF of 0.74, the
maximum packing for a system in which
all spheres have equal diameter.

Body Centered Cubic

Atoms are arranged at the corners of
the cube with another atom at the
cube center.

Body Centered Cubic

Since atoms are assumed to touch
along the cube diagonal in BCC, the
lattice parameter is related to atomic
radius through:

4R
a
3

Body Centered Cubic

Coordination number for BCC is 8.
Each center atom is surrounded by
the eight corner atoms.
The lower coordination number also
results in a slightly lower APF for BCC
structures. BCC has an APF of 0.68,
rather than 0.74 in FCC

Hexagonal Close Packed

Cell of an HCP lattice is visualized as
a top and bottom plane of 7 atoms,
forming a regular hexagon around a
central atom. In between these
planes is a half-hexagon of 3 atoms.

Hexagonal Close Packed

There are two lattice parameters in HCP, a
and c, representing the basal and height
parameters respectively. In the ideal case,
the c/a ratio is 1.633, however, deviations do
occur.
Coordination number and APF for HCP are
exactly the same as those for FCC: 12 and
0.74 respectively.
This is because they are both considered close
packed structures.

Close Packed Structures

Even though FCC and HCP are close
packed structures, they are quite different
in the manner of stacking their close
packed planes.
Close packed stacking in HCP takes place
along the c direction ( the (0001) plane). FCC
close packed planes are along the (111).
First plane is visualized as an atom surrounded
by 6 nearest neighbors in both HCP and FCC.

Close Packed Structures

The second plane in both HCP and FCC is
situated in the holes above the first plane of
atoms.
Two possible placements for the third plane of
atoms
Third plane is placed directly above the first plane
of atoms
ABA stacking -- HCP structure

Third plane is placed above the holes of the first

plane not covered by the second plane
ABC stacking -- FCC structure

Close Packed Structures

Crystallographic
Directions
Cubic systems
directions are named based upon the
projection of a vector from the origin of the
crystal to another point in the cell.

Conventionally, a right hand Cartesian

coordinate system is used.
The chosen origin is arbitrary, but is
always selected for the easiest solution to
the problem.

Crystallographic
Directions
Points within the lattice are written in
the form h,k,l, where the three
indices correspond to the fraction of
the lattice parameters in the x,y,z
direction.

Miller Indices
Procedure for writing directions in
Miller Indices
Determine the coordinates of the two
points in the direction. (Simplified if one
of the points is the origin).
Subtract the coordinates of the second
point from those of the first.
Clear fractions to give lowest integer
values for all coordinates

Miller Indices
Indices are written in square brackets
without commas (ex: [hkl])
Negative values are written with a bar
over the integer.
Ex: if h<0 then the direction[hiskl ]

Miller Indices
Crystallographic Planes
Identify the coordinate intercepts of the
plane
the coordinates at which the plane intercepts
the x, y and z axes.
If a plane is parallel to an axis, its intercept is
taken as .
If a plane passes through the origin, choose an
equivalent plane, or move the origin

Take the reciprocal of the intercepts

Miller Indices
Clear fractions due to the reciprocal, but do not
reduce to lowest integer values.
Planes are written in parentheses, with bars
over the negative indices.
Ex: (hkl) or if h<0 then it becomes

(hkl )
ex: plane A is parallel to x, and intercepts
y
and z at 1, and therefore is the (011).
Plane B passes through the origin, so the
origin is moved to O, thereby making the
plane the
(112)

Miller Indices